@ chimpware → thanks for pointing about ESM; you are completely right, ESM mode can be triggered from a scene. It will make things easiest by combining the internal tstat scheduling and VERA capabilities of controlling it remotely.
Thx! What a great, simple solution for my vacation home (using a Scene to switch from ESM → Normal → ESM). Love it. Just set it up.
HOWEVER, if you manually set the Tstat to HOLD (using the button on the Tstat), there is simply no way (that I could find) to set that puppy back to NORMAL remotely via Vera.
I can swap to/from ESM and Normal just fine as long as that HOLD setting wasn’t selected with the button on the Tstat.
Also, does anyone know what the actual settings for the Comfort and Energy Star presets are? I swear I saw a chart in the docs showing the temps/times for the Preset setbacks, but can’t find it again…
EDITED: found Energy Star Preset requirements for Tstats at (see table on Page 6): http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/product_specs/program_reqs/thermostats_prog_req.pdf
.//A.
Why not disable the keypad on the Tstat? Do you want people to be able to manually set the Temp?
In any event, I tested my Trane and set it to Hold manually and then was able to change to ESM and Normal from Vera.
How are you able to do that? Switching to ESM is fine, but choosing Normal just sends the Tstat back to its last setting (if it was on Hold, it went back to Hold).
.//A.
[quote=“Chimpware, post:23, topic:167245”]Why not disable the keypad on the Tstat? Do you want people to be able to manually set the Temp?
In any event, I tested my Trane and set it to Hold manually and then was able to change to ESM and Normal from Vera.[/quote]
I am also a novice at setting up my Vera so I am getting a little confused by some of the suggestions that people are making.
It is currently winter, so I have my Trane Thermostat programmed with the internal controls (ie Wake, Leave, Return, and Sleep). My wife is home with the kids most of the time (so leave/return don’t really drop to low) but sometimes they leave for a few hours to run errands, so I’d like to be able to use Vera to interrupt the internal program and drop the temperature to say 62 degrees while they are out but then when I am heading home use my iPhone Vera controller to activate Vera to have the thermostat return to the previous program.
Is there a simple way to have a Scene named Leave Home and another Scene named Return that tells the Trane to resume to the program?
thanks
Easy.
- Set up 2 Scenes (1 named Away, 1 named Home).
- Away Scene sets the Trane TStat to Energy Saving Mode
- Home Scene sets the Tstat to Normal (and your regular program will run).
.//A.
[quote=“TosaDeac, post:25, topic:167245”]I am also a novice at setting up my Vera so I am getting a little confused by some of the suggestions that people are making.
It is currently winter, so I have my Trane Thermostat programmed with the internal controls (ie Wake, Leave, Return, and Sleep). My wife is home with the kids most of the time (so leave/return don’t really drop to low) but sometimes they leave for a few hours to run errands, so I’d like to be able to use Vera to interrupt the internal program and drop the temperature to say 62 degrees while they are out but then when I am heading home use my iPhone Vera controller to activate Vera to have the thermostat return to the previous program.
Is there a simple way to have a Scene named Leave Home and another Scene named Return that tells the Trane to resume to the program?
thanks[/quote]
Just set up my first Vera. At his time, i only have 2 Trane Thermostats. One for the First Floor and One for the Second and Third Floors. I understand that there are many ways to program the system, but I’m reading the system trying to figure out the best way that would work for me.
At the moment, i have set up three scenes. Morning, Mid Day, and Night temp which control the temperature of each thermostat. Basically i have 6 scenes set up.
I take frequent trips out which have me gone for several days, up to 3 weeks at a time.
I want is to be able control over ride the scenes and put into ESM from Vera. Therefore, i can put the system back to normal when I’m on the way back home.
What I’m reading is that i should put the program internally and control the ESM from Vera. Is there any other suggestions?
Thanks in Advance for any help…
Set up whatever program you want on the Tstat running when you’re home (you mentioned you had 3). That is your normal “Run” program.
Then,
- Set up 2 Scenes (1 named Away, 1 named Home).
- Away Scene sets the Trane TStat to Energy Saving Mode
- Home Scene sets the Tstat to Normal (and your regular program will run).
.//A.
[quote=“tscott, post:27, topic:167245”]At the moment, i have set up three scenes. Morning, Mid Day, and Night temp which control the temperature of each thermostat. Basically i have 6 scenes set up.
I take frequent trips out which have me gone for several days, up to 3 weeks at a time.
I want is to be able control over ride the scenes and put into ESM from Vera. Therefore, i can put the system back to normal when I’m on the way back home.
What I’m reading is that i should put the program internally and control the ESM from Vera. Is there any other suggestions?
Thanks in Advance for any help…[/quote]
What does the upper right ‘auto’ mean in the vera device panel? I assume it’s the fan setting?
Correct.
(If you watch the thermostat while changing the setting, you can see what it does.)
Thanks. The button does not seem to work. It has an arrow like it should drop down to setting options (on, off, auto), but it doesn’t. clicking anywhere on the fan button just gives ‘command sent’. Is that one supposed to allow me to select the setting? Not a big deal, I always leave the fan on auto.
[edit] actually, clicking the upper right button (fan) changed the stat from RUN mode to ESM mode. Normal?
Also, if the mode is set to COOL, then the heat point setting in the internal schedule has NO effect, correct? My winter/summer setpoints are too close, and I never want heat coming on in the summer.
[quote=“Intrepid, post:31, topic:167245”]The button does not seem to work. […]
[edit] actually, clicking the upper right button (fan) changed the stat from RUN mode to ESM mode. Normal?[/quote]
Click a little bit more to the left, on the actual label ‘Auto’ or ‘On’, for the drop down to appear.
Clicking the thermostat icon will toggle the mode between Run and ESM. It does seem though as if sometimes when clicking a button close to the border it does the same thing; like you observed.
Also, if the mode is set to COOL, then the heat point setting in the internal schedule has NO effect, correct?Correct.
Thanks Anthonyris - Using the internal thermostat schedule and setting up the away/home scenes worked. Thanks for the help.
Now i will try to get lights to come on and off replicating my normal light scheuleds while the away scene is active.
Again thanks
Great, glad it worked. Thermostat control was the 1 thing that got my wife on board the z-train.
NOTE: if you set that TStat to “Hold” manually by pressing the physical button on the TStat, you will not be able to change the modes from Normal->ESM via z-wave. For some reason, that’s not supported. Drove me batty fir a while…
Just don’t use the hold button.
[quote=“tscott, post:33, topic:167245”]Thanks Anthonyris - Using the internal thermostat schedule and setting up the away/home scenes worked. Thanks for the help.
Now i will try to get lights to come on and off replicating my normal light scheuleds while the away scene is active.
Again thanks[/quote]
Can you disable the hold button?
We have vacation condos that we rent out. They are about an hour away, and I really want to be able to enable ESM when they’re empty without having to drive.
I also would love to set reasonable temp limits. My wife thinks the house will get cooler faster if she sets the thermostat on 55 instead of 70. I would like to set it so people can’t manually go below 68 or above 80, but still have control over the temp while they’re on vacation.
I am not sure whether you can disable the hold button. My Trane is in hold because I did not create programmed set times on the thermostat. I am not sure whether this is the same as pressing the hold button or not.
In any case, I can still go into ESM mode via z-wave. If you cannot set it to ESM mode, you still have the ability to set the desired temperature via z-wave.
In the installer setup menus of the thermostat, there are settings for the minimum cool temp and max heat temp to limit the settings available to the user. As far as I know, these have to be done at the thermostat.
As @wscannell mentioned, you can limit the setpoint ranges and you should be able to switch in and out of ESM; regardless, you can always change the setpoint (ESM is basically a hold with a predefined setpoint).
From a Z-Wave point of view the thermostat appears to have 2 modes: Normal and Energy Save. Normal is entered by sending the thermostat an On command. Energy Save by sending an Off command.
Normal is either the Run mode (i.e. use internal schedule) or the Hold mode (i.e. do not use internal schedule), as selected on the thermostat itself.
If you don’t use the internal scheduling, then you’d just switch between Hold and ESM, as @wscannell stated.
You can only disable all the buttons on the thermostat.
In the Automator iphone app, does anyone know a direct way to toggle ESM/RUN mode from the device screen? Clicking the thermometer icon does it in UI4, but not in automator.
I set up a scene for ‘ESM on’ and ‘RUN on’ and that works fine.
You can set the Trane for “hidden” mode. Basically, it prevents other users from manually changing any settings-unless they know how to get out of hidden mode (which most won’t). It’s documented in your user manual.
[quote=“SuperflyMD, post:35, topic:167245”]Can you disable the hold button?
We have vacation condos that we rent out. They are about an hour away, and I really want to be able to enable ESM when they’re empty without having to drive.
I also would love to set reasonable temp limits. My wife thinks the house will get cooler faster if she sets the thermostat on 55 instead of 70. I would like to set it so people can’t manually go below 68 or above 80, but still have control over the temp while they’re on vacation.[/quote]
I’m looking to replicate the basic thermostat functionality via the Vera I want the following:
[ul][li]Create set points and have the thermostat change the temp to these set points at predetermined times (already done).[/li]
[li]Be able to engage the hold mode from the Vera. So I find out that I’m going to be out of town for a week I can just run an event that will set the thermostat to hold at 83 degrees. In this case the set point events do not change the temperature while the thermostat is on hold[/li][/ul]
Anybody have a solution for this already?
I would have thought that the thermostat object would have these settings already since this is basic functionality for a programmable thermostat.